Generally described, user computing devices may facilitate the playback or display of items of content, such as audiobooks, electronic books, songs, videos, television programs, computer and video games, multi-media content, and the like. For example, an electronic book reader computing device (“e-reader”) may display an electronic book on a screen and/or play an audiobook through speakers or headphones.
In some instances, a user may be interested in consuming multiple items of content at the same time. For example, a user may wish to read an electronic book while listening to an audiobook of the same title, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The electronic book and the audiobook (or more generally, any group of two or more items of content related to the same content title) may be referred to as “companion” items of content.
However, in many current approaches, the user must manually line up the two companion items of content so that the words narrated in the audiobook correspond to what the user is reading in the electronic book. For example, the user may find it necessary to pause the audiobook manually during portions of the electronic book that have no counterpart in the audiobook. Likewise, the user may find it necessary to manually fast-forward the audiobook during portions of the audiobook that have no counterpart in the electronic book. This scheme can prove frustrating and inconvenient for users.